The decision to move, expand or consolidate your data center is one that must be weighed in the context of cost, operational reliability and of course, security. With these considerations in mind, more companies are finding that colocation offers the solution they need without the hassle of managing their own data center.

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Also known simply as “colo,” data center colocation refers to a service provided by companies that offer a shared, secure space for enterprise businesses to store hardware related to data storage and other equipment.

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The enterprise customer engages with the colo company in a way that is similar to a rental relationship with a property manager whereby a customer rents space in the facility to store equipment.

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The customer usually supplies the equipment: servers and other hardware necessary for daily operations. And the colo company stores it securely in a cool, monitored environment ideal for servers, while ensuring bandwidth needs are met. The data center offers tiers of service that guarantee a certain amount of uptime.

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Enterprise Benefits of Data Center Colocation

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Data center colocation could be the right choice for any business of any size, in any industry.

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Uptime

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The advantage that draws enterprise businesses into data center colocation is server uptime. By buying into a specific tier, each enterprise server client is guaranteed a certain percentage of uptime without the payroll cost to maintain or other maintenance fees.

• Tier 1 DCs have a 99.671% uptime percentage per year. Maximum total yearly downtime = 1729.2 minutes or 28.817 hours each year

• Tier 2 DCs have a 99.741% uptime percentage per year. Maximum total yearly downtime = 1361.3 minutes or 22.688 hours

• Tier 3 DCs have a 99.982% uptime percentage per year. Maximum total yearly downtime = 94.6 minutes or 1.5768 hours

• Tier 4 DCs have a 99.995% uptime percentage per year. Maximum total yearly downtime = 26.3 minutes or 0.4 hours

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Risk Management

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Businesses who use data centers as a data recovery strategy are doing so to mitigate risk in the case of an external event (such as a natural disaster) or outage. Utilizing a colocation facility ensures business continuity in the event of a major disaster. This means that if your business location loses power, your network traffic will not be affected.

The key is redundancy. The layers of redundancy offered at a data center colocation are far more complex than many companies can afford in-house.

Some enterprise companies will consider the off-site location as their primary data storage location while maintaining onsite copies of data as backup.

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Security

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Data centers are equipped with the latest in security technology including cameras and biometric readers, check-in desks that welcome inbound visitors and check for security badges are commonplace. These facilities are monitored 24/7/365, both in the physical world and on the cloud to ensure that unauthorized access does not occur.

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Cost

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One of the main advantages of colocation is that it results in significant cost savings especially when measured against managing a data center in-house. This means that for many companies, renting the space they need from a data center offers a practical solution to ever-shrinking IT budgets. With colocation, there is no need to worry about planning for capital expenditures such as UPS (uninterrupted power source), multiple backup generators, power grids and HVAC units.

Apart from these capital expenditures, there are also ongoing maintenance costs associated with maintaining and managing an in-house server.

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Bandwidth

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Colos issue the bandwidth that enterprise client servers need to function properly. With large pipes of bandwidth to power multiple companies, data center colocations are primed to support businesses in a way their office location likely cannot.

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Support and Certifications

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When you partner with a data center colocation, your enterprise business may be able to reduce potential payroll costs by relying on the data center experts to manage and troubleshoot major pieces of equipment. Enterprise businesses can rely on expert support from experts who are certified to help. As such, colocation offers the benefit of peace of mind.

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Scalability

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As your business grows, you can easily expand your IT infrastructure needs through colocation.

Different industries will have different requirements in terms of the functionalities they need from their data center as it relates to space, power, support and security. Regardless, your service provider will work with you to determine your needs and make adjustments quickly.

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Let Halo Communications Group assist you in navigating the many "COLO" providers in the marketplace. Some of our partners include: